Remembering Mansouri

Lotfi Mansouri always said that opera was for everyone, and it seemed as though nearly everyone returned his regard. Certainly there was no shortage of admirers squeezing into the lobby of the War Memorial Opera House on Friday afternoon for a memorial tribute to the San Francisco Opera’s former general director, who died in August.

During a 75-minute ceremony, Kip Cranna of the company’s musical administration reminisced about Mansouri’s ambitious commissioning plans, beginning with “The Dangerous Liaisons” by Conrad Susa, who had died on Thursday. Former president Bill Godward – still spry and garrulous at 100 – paid tribute to Mansouri’s financial resourcefulness, and Eddie Powell, the former VP of the stagehands’ union, recalled his close relations with the stage crew. There were musical offerings by the Opera Chorus and the brass players from the Opera Orchestra, and Frederica von Stade sang a splendid aria from Jake Heggie’s Dead Man Walking, with the composer at the piano.

Inevitably, the talk turned to supertitles, perhaps Mansouri’s most lasting legacy. Margaret Genovese, the former head of marketing at the Canadian Opera Company in Toronto, recalled being in the senior staff meeting when the decision was made to add titles to a performance of Strauss’ Elektra.

“We didn’t ask the public if they wanted supertitles, and we didn’t poll them afterward to see if they liked it,” she said. “We just assumed that it was a good idea because it was Lotfi’s.”